Jennifer Lawrence or Jessica Chastain? “Argo” or “Zero Dark Thirty”? Daniel Day-Lewis or All the Unfortunate Chaps Who Are Not Daniel Day-Lewis? With the Oscar nominations being announced on Thursday ﻿and the Golden Globe Awards airing Sunday, ﻿the peak of the moviegoing season is upon us, leaving San Diego movie-lovers to ponder one additional big-screen question:

Regular movie theater, or upscale movie palace?

Like the luxurious Cinepolis in Del Mar, the new ArcLight Cinemas complex in La Jolla offers patrons reserved seats, state-of-the-art technology and a lobby bar and cafe. Tickets are more expensive, but in these days of Netflix at home and rude cellphone users at the multiplex, the civilized movie experience is supposed to pay for itself.

Is a night at the ArcLight worth the time, money and sweatpants separation anxiety? The chain’s four Los Angeles-area theaters are much loved by the picky locals, and the gleaming two-month old La Jolla outlet is a hit with the Yelp’s vocal critics. Here are some scenes from my recent visit.

Prelude to a flick: Whether you are partial to aisle seats or need to be front and center, you can reserve your seat of choice via mobile app or online at

arclightcinemas.com. Non-matinee adult tickets go for $13.75, but you can save $1 per ticket by signing up for a free ArcLight membership.

The money-saving registration process was quick, and reserving seats for an evening screening of “Silver Linings Playbook” was painless. Which is more than I can say for the rest of my ArcLight experience.

Asphalt parking jungle: The ArcLight shares a packed end of the Westfield UTC mall with Macy’s, 24 Hour Fitness and a massive Forever 21, which left me and my moviegoing pal battling too many gym rats and shoppers for too few parking spaces. Good thing the cafe serves martinis.

Romancing the stone: One draw of the upscale cinema is the presence of upscale cinema food. Why cruise the mall for soft pretzels and frozen yogurt when you can relax in the lobby cafe with a pre-movie glass of wine and a gourmet salad? Sadly, ArcLight gave me plenty of reasons to hit the food court.

After ordering (and paying for) a quesadilla and Caesar salad, we were informed that the cafe was out of Caesar dressing. The young woman behind the counter suggested we order something else in the Caesar-salad price range so she would not have to ring up the order again. We dutifully opted for the garden salad, which lived up to its name when my date crunched down on a small pebble.

Alrighty then. After a repeat invoking of the Organic Produce Defense, a second server offered to take the salad off our bill. That process took nearly 15 minutes and almost made us late for the movie.

The late show: On its website and the ticket printouts, ArcLight proudly trumpets its “no interruptions” philosophy. There are no preshow commercials, guests are not seated after the film begins, and there is a “no-tolerance policy” for texting and calling during the movie. It did not play out that way for me.

Did people stream in after the movie had started? Yes they did, some of them using their eye-stabbing flashlight apps to locate their poorly marked reserved seats. Did they text? The late-arrivals who plopped down next to me did. (Surprise downside to reserved seats? When late-arriving texters sit right next to you, moving isn’t easy.)

“That is a miss,” said Gretchen McCourt, ArcLight’s apologetic vice president of cinema programming. “The no late seating policy is one of our brand promises. Obviously, people may get up to use the restroom or get something to eat, but coming in late and searching for their seat, that will have to be addressed.”

According to McCourt, ticket-takers are supposed to politely urge tardy patrons to attend a later showing or consider seeing another movie, And I’m sure our ticket-take would have done that, if we’d had one. Which we did not.

The verdict: The sound in the theater was crisp, the guacamole accompanying my quesadilla was very tasty and the much-celebrated caramel corn was addictively good. But the seats in my favorite multiplexes are more comfortable than ArcLight’s. They are also cheaper, and I am not obligated to stay in them. Judging by the enthusiastic comments of some ArcLight-loving colleagues, my unfortunate experience was not the norm. I hope they’re right. I miss the caramel corn already.